Modern computer networks contain many different elements. In addition to server and client computers, there are many different devices, such as routers, switches, wireless access points, firewalls, security appliances, storage appliances, and many other types of devices. All of these devices may require administration and maintenance. Typically, each of these devices may provide a user interface that allows for any necessary configuration of the device.
However, as networks increase in size and in geographic span, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage each device using its own configuration interface. For example, a corporate network may contain devices that span the globe. It becomes increasingly difficult to manage the devices individually because keeping track of how to access the configuration interface of each device becomes more complicated as the number of devices increase.
To alleviate this problem, network management software has been created. The network management software may run on a computer and is configured to access each of the devices on the network. In addition, the network management software may keep track of where a device is physically located. For small networks, such information is not vital, however, for large, geographically diverse networks, simply discovering where on the globe a particular device is can be a difficult task, absent network management software.